Tuesday rumor roundup from GM Meetings

With baseball's annual general manager meetings taking place in Milwaukee, there are many rumors floating around. Here's what CBSSports.com's Danny Knobler -- who is there -- heard Tuesday.

• The Yankees have met with Bob Garber, who is the agent for free agent starting pitchers C.J. Wilson and Roy Oswalt. The two sides are in preliminary discussions about both players, but several other teams are obviously still in play.

• The Red Sox are going to interview an unnamed candidate for a second time. Dale Sveum is also getting a second interview and several have speculated he's the front-runner.

• The Nationals need a center fielder and some other pieces, but are primarily focusing on one veteran starting pitcher. They're in on Wilson, Oswalt and Mark Buehrle. And we know they aren't shy when it comes to spending money (Exhibit A: Jayson Werth). Adding one of these guys to a rotation with young guns Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann would give the Nats a very strong rotation. The Nationals also wouldn't rule out any of the big-name offensive free agents (Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, Jose Reyes), but it's much more likely they go pitching.

• The Orioles don't have near as much money to spend as some people thought they'd have. "We have to be smarter and work harder," new general manager Dan Duquette said. It looks like a payroll in the range of $90 million, which is an increase, but not a gigantic one. They opened last season with just over $85 million in player salaries.

• The Brewers have big reservations on signing Rafael Furcal and probably can't make a serious run at Jose Reyes, so don't be surprised if they bring back Yuniesky Betancourt to play shortstop. Also, Knobler told me it sounds like "the longest of longshots" Prince Fielder is back next season.

• Expect the owners to approve the sale of the Astros Thursday, and the move will also result in the Astros moving to the American League, starting in 2013. This will result in two 15-team leagues and interleague play all season.

• The Collective Bargaining Agreement will not be announced during the meetings. It will come Friday at the earliest, but don't worry, it's going to get done.

Here are some other notes from the meetings, compiled from other reporters:

Post Deleted by Administrator

Since: Nov 26, 2008

Posted on: November 16, 2011 8:56 am

Tuesday rumor roundup from GM Meetings

There isn't any "news" on the Royals because they are building their team using their minor-league system which is now finally in excellent shape after years of neglect. There isn't any news because they are not spending on free agents.

Tuesday rumor roundup from GM Meetings

Tuesday rumor roundup from GM Meetings

Expect the owners to approve the sale of the Astros Thursday, and the move will also result in the Astros moving to the American League, starting in 2013. This will result in two 15-team leagues and interleague play all season.

[Groan.]

Since: Jul 9, 2009

Posted on: November 16, 2011 12:37 am

Tuesday rumor roundup from GM Meetings

laaz has it all wrong! The problem isn't that no one cares about the Royals; the problem is the Royals never have any news to report. (Well . . . hardly ever.)

Since: Feb 19, 2008

Posted on: November 15, 2011 11:18 pm

Tuesday rumor roundup from GM Meetings

And that's coming from a Nationals fan. Zing!

Since: Jan 22, 2007

Posted on: November 15, 2011 10:59 pm

Tuesday rumor roundup from GM Meetings

Yea.....no one cares about the Royals pal...

Since: Sep 9, 2011

Posted on: November 15, 2011 9:20 pm

Tuesday rumor roundup from GM Meetings

No news on the Royals? Why the bias?

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